1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an identification system for documents. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for comparing information on at least two documents. Such comparison may be performed to verify an entity's identity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The problem of rampant and readily available fake identification documents, more particularly, driver licenses and other identification documents, has caused many retailers fines, sometimes imprisonment, loss of tobacco and liquor licenses, and has even subjected them to other forms of civil and criminal liability. Over the course of years, various attempts have been made to prevent or detect the use of fake identification documents, but not with a great deal of success. To help prevent the use of fake identification documents, motor vehicle authorities have been working on and refining a comprehensive framework of minimum requirements with recommendations to enhance and improve the security and uniformity of driver license documents in North America. These new driver licenses and other identification documents have embedded coded, or even encrypted coded information, with machine readable formats that conform to various standards.
The use of driver licenses has expanded over the years to serve as identification for various applications, such as for the purchase of alcohol, tobacco or lottery products, as well as for gambling in casinos, off-track betting (OTB), movie theaters and user-definable events, such as allowing the ingress into liquor establishments. All of these fields have an age requirement for the purchase of a product at the point-of-transaction or for ingress into an establishment and the driver license is the document used to provide age identification and all age verification is commonly accomplished in a relatively quick manner.
To prevent use of false identifications, sometimes two forms of identification are used to verify a person's identity. Such situations typically occur in government applications that require multiple forms of identification before the issuance of a government credential or ID. Upon a visual examination, the documents (e.g., a passport and a driver's license) may look identical. However, the information encoded on the documents may be different. Similarly, a cashier during a sale transaction may request a person's driver's license to verify some information on a credit card, which is used to pay for a purchase. Other situations may involve use of government and non-government identification cards in various identity verification scenarios. Thus, there is a need for a system and a method that will compare information encoded on documents in order to verify contents of the documents against each other and, hence, to verify an entity's identity.